Often described merely as a colonial construction, the phenomenon of thuggee remains one of the more contentious and controversial subjects of Nineteenth-century South Asian History. Based largely on new material, this book constitutes the first in-depth examination of thuggee as a type of banditry, emerging in a specific socio-economic and geographic context. Thuggee was not an essence or a caste-like phenomonon, but a means of obtaining a livelihood reverted to by all strata of Indian society in certain areas. As such it constituted a highly institutionalized practice related to issues of patronage and retainership, identity and legitimacy, and it was defined by the appropriation of high status rituals and the martial ethos. The British usually described the thugs as fanatic assassins and Kali-worshippers, yet Wagner argues that the history of thuggee need no longer be limited to the study of its representation.
Shortlisted for the 2008 History Today-Longman Book of the Year Award. See the History Today website for more information:
http://www.historytoday.com/Faq.aspx?m=408&amid=408
'This is a monograph by a young scholar which takes a notoriously difficult problem in 19th century colonial history – the rumoured religious cult of Thuggee whereby travellers in a remote region of Uttar Pradesh, were randomly strangled and thrown down wells - and, with persistence and intelligence, dissects it, showing how much Thuggee really existed, and how much was a myth invented by the Englishmen who set out to extirpate it. Wagner convincingly answers this old problem, and succeeds against the odds in making his text readable and not getting bogged down in theory.'
- Committee of the 2008 History Today-Longman Book of the Year Award
'Thuggee, the supposed ritual murder of travellers on India's roads in the early-nineteenth century, has been a source of contention ever since among colonial officials, nationalists and postcolonial theorists. Kim Wagner has finally cracked the problem, providing the most detailed and convincing analysis yet of its origin and nature.'
- C A Bayly, St Catharine's College, University of Cambridge, UK
'Reading colonial sources against the grain..Thuggee successfully demystifies a much misunderstood phenomenon.'
- David Hall-Matthews, Times Literary Supplement
'This excellent work brings together specific episodes with the general problem of understanding a past world, by writing a micro-history of the circumstances of the murder and disappearance of Lieutenant John Maunsell near Agra, India in 1812...Well-written, this book is also methodologically acute.'
- Jeremy Black, History Today
Introduction
Thuggee reassessed
PART I
Engaging the Colonial 'Archives of Repression'
Thuggee in Pre-colonial India
The Discovery of Thuggee, Etawah 1809
Thomas Perry and the First Arrests
N.J. Halhed in Sindouse, Oct. 1812
PART II
Sindouse
The Practice of Thuggee
The Itinerant Underworld
The World of the Thugs
PART III
Halhed in Sindouse - A Second Look
Sindouse - The Aftermath
Continued Measures Against Thugs
The Operations Commence
The Thuggee Campaign
From Sindouse to Sagar
Epilogue
KIM A. WAGNER completed his PhD in History at the University of Cambridge, UK, in 2003. He is currently a Research Fellow at King's College Cambridge, and Associate Researcher at the University of Edinburgh. He works on banditry and the methodological use of trial records, as well as colonial fears of indigenous conspiracies.
Description
Often described merely as a colonial construction, the phenomenon of thuggee remains one of the more contentious and controversial subjects of Nineteenth-century South Asian History. Based largely on new material, this book constitutes the first in-depth examination of thuggee as a type of banditry, emerging in a specific socio-economic and geographic context. Thuggee was not an essence or a caste-like phenomonon, but a means of obtaining a livelihood reverted to by all strata of Indian society in certain areas. As such it constituted a highly institutionalized practice related to issues of patronage and retainership, identity and legitimacy, and it was defined by the appropriation of high status rituals and the martial ethos. The British usually described the thugs as fanatic assassins and Kali-worshippers, yet Wagner argues that the history of thuggee need no longer be limited to the study of its representation.
Reviews
Shortlisted for the 2008 History Today-Longman Book of the Year Award. See the History Today website for more information:
http://www.historytoday.com/Faq.aspx?m=408&amid=408
'This is a monograph by a young scholar which takes a notoriously difficult problem in 19th century colonial history – the rumoured religious cult of Thuggee whereby travellers in a remote region of Uttar Pradesh, were randomly strangled and thrown down wells - and, with persistence and intelligence, dissects it, showing how much Thuggee really existed, and how much was a myth invented by the Englishmen who set out to extirpate it. Wagner convincingly answers this old problem, and succeeds against the odds in making his text readable and not getting bogged down in theory.'
- Committee of the 2008 History Today-Longman Book of the Year Award
'Thuggee, the supposed ritual murder of travellers on India's roads in the early-nineteenth century, has been a source of contention ever since among colonial officials, nationalists and postcolonial theorists. Kim Wagner has finally cracked the problem, providing the most detailed and convincing analysis yet of its origin and nature.'
- C A Bayly, St Catharine's College, University of Cambridge, UK
'Reading colonial sources against the grain..Thuggee successfully demystifies a much misunderstood phenomenon.'
- David Hall-Matthews, Times Literary Supplement
'This excellent work brings together specific episodes with the general problem of understanding a past world, by writing a micro-history of the circumstances of the murder and disappearance of Lieutenant John Maunsell near Agra, India in 1812...Well-written, this book is also methodologically acute.'
- Jeremy Black, History Today
Contents
Introduction
Thuggee reassessed
PART I
Engaging the Colonial 'Archives of Repression'
Thuggee in Pre-colonial India
The Discovery of Thuggee, Etawah 1809
Thomas Perry and the First Arrests
N.J. Halhed in Sindouse, Oct. 1812
PART II
Sindouse
The Practice of Thuggee
The Itinerant Underworld
The World of the Thugs
PART III
Halhed in Sindouse - A Second Look
Sindouse - The Aftermath
Continued Measures Against Thugs
The Operations Commence
The Thuggee Campaign
From Sindouse to Sagar
Epilogue
Authors
KIM A. WAGNER completed his PhD in History at the University of Cambridge, UK, in 2003. He is currently a Research Fellow at King's College Cambridge, and Associate Researcher at the University of Edinburgh. He works on banditry and the methodological use of trial records, as well as colonial fears of indigenous conspiracies.
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